The Importance of Habits: 3 Must-Reads for Creating Beneficial Routines

May 13, 2015

We spend more than 40% of our days engaged in habits. Some are more noticeable, like rolling over in bed to check your phone first thing in the morning, or saying “thank you” when someone pays you a kind gesture. Others are more subtle — maybe you always put your left sock on first, or walk with your hands in your pockets. Everyone has habits -- though there are, of course, good habits and bad habits. Done right, habits eliminate unnecessary decisions so you can focus on more important things. Here are three recent SlideShares on optimizing habits:

Build Habits with the "Strategy of Scheduling"

Looking to maximize productivity and get tasks done faster and smarter? Join the club. Gretchen Rubin, author of "The Happiness Project" and "Better Than Before," has studied how people form and carry out productive habits. In this video below, Rubin explains how scheduling activities increases your likelihood to follow through. To find out more about Gretchen’s habit-building strategies, as well as how to avoid habit-breaking loopholes, check out her collection of videos here.

The most successful people develop habits that have either gotten them to the top, or kept them at the top. Some examples: Author Maya Angelou wrote in stark hotel rooms to minimize distractions. Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, reportedly wakes up at the invigorating hour of 4:30am. Want to follow in the footsteps of some of the world's greatest marketers? Check out their habits:

Want to create a successful product? Build something that becomes integrated into your users' daily habits. Think about it: The most successful products of our time, such as Instagram and YouTube, capitalize on both internal and external motivations that result in continual user use. This deck teaches you to leverage the human tendency toward habits and make products that will integrate themselves into your users’ lives.